Although advertising is the most effective way to encourage mass consumption, particularly if the goods are cheap and worthless, the bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low pricing is forgotten. In a certain way, quality is like cooking, and you cannot fake good quality any more than you can fake a good meal. Therefore, quality in a product is not what the supplier puts in; rather, it is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. That is to say, a product is not quality simply because it is difficult to make and costs a lot of money in advertising. It is better to think that customers only pay for what is of use to them and give them great value for right price. As can be expected, the advertising strategy to increase popular consumption is likely to result in incompetence since nothing else than the product itself constitutes quality.
In conclusion, just because quality is more important than quantity, it does not mean that advertising does not play a decisive role in influencing the public mind. The point is that consumers have now become more prudent in spending behaviors and hence are no longer as penny-wise and quality-foolish as before. In all events, suppliers should continue investing in advertising their quality products because, if they stop advertising to save money, it would be as stupid as stopping the clock to save time. (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh)
